Apologetics
is a defense of beliefs by arguments, evidences, and reasons
for why we believe what we believe. Apologetics is necessary
to avoid the common 21st century attitude that our inner
beliefs and experiences -- without arguments for them
-- are self-authenticating. This "faithist"
attitude implies that we are entitled to hold whatever
beliefs we wish, without justifying them: the only criterion
for truth is our beliefs themselves. This is seen in the
common cultural presumption that "what is true for
you may not be true for me." But this is a false assumption,
since the relativistic attitude it advocates disregards
the fact that not all beliefs can be true. The law of non
contradiction is violated when truth presumptions are made
for contradictory beliefs. It cannot be true, for example,
that God is both personal (as Christians believe) and that
God is an impersonal force (as New Age spiritualities believe).

Christian Apologetics involves
at least three distinct but interrelated tasks: the explanation
of basic Christian beliefs, the defense of those beliefs
from those who attack Christianity from without, and a defense
of basic Christian beliefs from heretical beliefs from within
Christianity.

(a) First, apologetics is the instruction
of the basic Christian doctrines, beliefs and
history. It answers questions about these doctrines
and beliefs, and teaches the fundamentals of defending
the rationality and trustworthiness of the essential truths
of the Faith. This is an essential
task since there is far too much biblical and theological
illiteracy in the Church, an illiteracy which has led to
an all-too-common anti-intellectualism
and far-too much reliance on personal feelings and experiences
rather than on the testing of these by sound doctrine and
confirmation from the Bible, properly interpreted. Those
who do not have a clear grasp of "basic
Christianity" unfortunately are liable to fall for
every whiff of false doctrine. Such as proven to be the
case, as New Age Spiritualities and Secular Humanistic
attitudes about the Bible and ethics have crept into the
modern Christian Church. Apologetics is a defense against
this threat and it does so largely by a sanctification
process in which Christians are enabled to cultivate a
mature faith which loves God with the mind as well as the
heart (Mt 22:37), and which is ready to give a defense
for what we believe (1 Pet 3:15): see
Dr. Whitney's University Course Outline for 07-221: "Justifying
Religious Beliefs" (Reasonable
Faith)

(b) Secondly, Apologetics defends Christian beliefs against
arguments from those hostile to these beliefs. These hostile
forces include not only atheists, skeptics,
secular humanists and naturalistic scientists (including
social scientists who assume naturalistic presuppositions
denying the reality of the supernatural) but also apologists
for other religions and liberal religious pluralists who
assume, wrongly, that all religions are the same. Despite
the "political
correctness" and
supposed "tolerance" that has taken hold of
contemporary western societies, it must be understood that
while many religions may contain aspects of truth, there
are real and distinct basic core differences among the
various religions. Apologetics acknowledges Christianity's
uniqueness and refutes (answers) anti-Christian New Age
alternative spiritualities, criticisms from other religions,
and the secular humanistic and naturalistic worldview which
has all-but-taken over the public school system: see
Dr. Whitney's University Course Outline for 07-100: "Religion
and Culture"

(c) Thirdly, Apologetics must defend Christian
orthodoxy from false teachings by those within the Church,
the past 150 years of liberalism, for example, which presumes
a naturalistic worldview that disregards the historicity
of the Bible, miracles, and the basic teachings of Christianity:
the literal resurrection of Jesus, his virgin birth, his
miracles, etc. Examples abound among liberals who reduce
these truths to metaphor (eg: Bishop Spong, The Jesus Seminar's
Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan, etc.), and most academic
departments of religion in North America, the latter exhibiting
an unfortunate tendency to this kind of liberalism. The best-selling
book by novelist Dan Brown, The
da Vinci Code,
represents this kind of heretical teaching. Whether intentional
or naively, this kind of religious pseudo-scholarship is
not only misinformed but antagonist to the very foundations
of Christian belief about Jesus and the
Bible's trustworthiness. Mainline churches have been devastated
by this kind of liberalized, secularized Christianity,
supported by mass market publishers who publish controversial
and anti-Christian theories, no matter how nonsensical.

Another threat from within the Church
comes from the opposite end of the theological spectrum:
the extremist heresies introduced by evangelical pastors
who feel free to publish and teach the most outrageous
nonsense and heresy: Word-Faith teachers (Ken Copeland,
Ken Haggin, Benny Hinn, Peter Wagner, and most of TBN TV's "teachers")
are examples of this, many of whom preach prosperity and
positive affirmation (Robert Schuler and other prosperity
and "felt
needs" church
marketing advocates, etc.) which are largely indistinguishable
from New Age cultism and humanistic psychology's focus
on human needs and self-esteem. New Age teachings have
entered the evangelical churches through these and other
theologically untrained and misguided pastors who focus
on "human
needs" and
church-growth movements, mega-churches and personality
cults, presenting watered-down gospel and pop-psychology
(Rick Warren, Bill Hybels,etc.) rather than the Gospel
message of sin and repentance, the holiness and justice
of God, and the desperate need for Christ as redeemer. See
the following page for links to essays which critique the "seeker-sensitive," "man-centered," "purpose-driven" churches
Here. Among other good resources, see the web site, Deception
in the Church, for apologetic commentary on such deceptions.

Affirmative and Defensive Apologetic
Tasks
(a) Affirmative or Positive apologetics answers questions
Christian may have about beliefs and doctrines; apologetics
also proposes arguments for the validity of Christian belief.
Ultimately, Christians rely on faith, but it need and should
not be "blind
faith" but, rather,
a tested and mature faith, informed by reasonable arguments
and sound doctrine. Christians must always be ready to
give reasons for the faith we hold within (1 Peter 3:15).
(b) Defensive or Negative apologetics refutes attacks on
Christian belief from without or within. Christian apologetics
engages not only the atheism of Scientific Naturalism and
Secular Humanism of the past centuries, but also the Postmodern
skeptical, "relativistic," anti-realistic
view of the world. An aspect of the latter is New Age Spirituality
which is largely monistic (all is one, all is god). Unfortunately,
apologetics involves also refutations of false teachings
within the Church -- from all sorts of strange teachings
(word-faith preachers like Kenneth Haggin and Ken Copeland,
Peter Wagner's third wave apostolic revivalism and pragmatic
church growth ideology), to liberal theologians whose naturalistic
presuppositions continue their misguided attempts to discredit
the authenticity of the biblical texts and orthodox doctrines
in a vain quest for "relevance."